Guns: Targets

The major gun story is Jim Zumbo's incredibly ignorant attack on semiauto rifles (Tam's critique of the post is awesome), but today I'd like to cover something a bit less contentious.

Nearly all shooters like shooting stuff that reacts when hit. Whether it's soda cans, Necco wafers, Ritz crackers, or plastic milk jugs, plinking stuff that jumps up when you hit it can be a wonderful way to spend an afternoon (great, now I'm hungry, too).

While this is all well and good, for serious training, I believe the old adage applies: "Paper never lies." Perhaps I should explain: you can miss a soda can by a good 12 inches on a 50-yard dirt berm and still send it flying. A proper paper bullseye, however, will always tell you where the bullet went with an straightforward, unapologetic hole. These holes let you evaluate your grip, sight picture, and trigger pull - the three basic elements of every shot.

I prefer simple 8-1/2" x 11" targets printed out from copy paper on a computer - simple to do, extremely cheap, and they can be used all the way up to 50 yards (starting around 100 yards, it's probably best to start moving up to larger targets, unless you have incredible vision and/or a scope with magnification). The popular shoot-n-see type targets are nice, but kinda expensive if you shoot a lot.

The best site I've seen for this sort of printable target is targetz.com. Yes, the name looks pretty ghetto, but the site is the real deal - lots of targets with no strings attached. I like the simple, plain black line bullseyes.